Poetry: I Wish I Can Show You My Face

December 15, 2019 – Los Angeles: The latest Artists For A Better World International “Poetry of the Month” selection features work from Hiba Ayshabi Babu Rasheed of Doha, Qatar.

I Wish I Can Show You My Face

I wish I can show you my face.

Show you the dark purple eye-shadow I am wearing

Oh, not for an evening of fun out with the girls

It’s from the sleepless nights I spend crying on the memory of my dead son’s little baby fingers

He is now up there in heaven

I wish I can show you my face

Show you the bright red lipstick I put on

Oh, not for a romantic night out with my man

But from the blow a very courageous man, a soldier, gave me with the edge of his rifle

I now smile with my dry lips, whenever I see kindness

I wish I can show you my pearl necklace

Oh, it wasn’t a gift from a secret admirer

It was strung around my neck and tightened

When I fought for my innocent husband in jail

I now smile secretly, thinking of joining him at his palace, I smile so secretly, even I don’t know I did, in my sleep

I wish I can show you my butterfly tattoo

Oh, it wasn’t done at a parlour in Jersey

It was burnt into my skin with a cigarette when I was lost in the mall without my mommy, by a rich lady

My children now knows, Rich ladies are not mean, because their mother is not mean

I wish I can show you the world

that I live in

Not so that you can save me

But so that

I can save you.